The Cult of Materialism and Its Impact on Children - Essay Example

4 October The Cult of Materialism and its Impact on Children The Christmas season tends to put people in a good shopping mood, but not those people who do not have enough money to buy what they want. The emphasis is on the “want,” not need. I walked around the mall, looking for things I would want to buy for myself and my family. I figured that I still have two months to save more money; I wanted to do some walking. I stopped at a children’s toy shop to see what I can get for my nieces and nephews. Then I heard it, this shrilling scream of a young girl. I looked around and saw two kids tugging apart an iPad. The other one must be his brother, who looked older by two or three years. The mother tried to placate her children by promising that she would get her 4-year-old daughter her own iPad for Christmas. This scene surprised me because I have not considered how early materialism can shape children’s attitudes and behaviors, and it also shocked me because I cannot imagine why parents would give in so easily to their wailing children. A society that spoils their children with hypermaterialism spoils the future of their children. Hypermaterialism can be compared to an infectious disease; it usually spreads from parents to their children. I have to differentiate materialism, when people want the things they need but do not overly concern themselves with getting material things all the time, and hypermaterialism, when people always want more and more things, without ever thinking if they need them and if they can actually use them. The four-year old girl had curly blonde hair down to her shoulders. She looked chubby but not overweight, and she wore a pink Guess dress with Guess boots. She wore a golden bracelet and a golden necklace. The necklace had a golden locket. Golden star earrings donned her ears. I saw some faint make-up on because her pink cheeks had a glittery look and her lips had the same red hue as her mother’s. Her mother wore a black dress that almost reached her knees. She had the latest Swarovski jewelry set that my mother gushed about a couple of days ago. A Prada bag clung to her right shoulder. She had black heels studded with rhinestones. A clip with pink rhinestones held her hair back in a bun. I saw two nannies at each side of the kid. They were both holding the kids back, or trying to, as the frantic mother pacified her children: “Ashley, okay, okay, I will buy you your iPad. It will be your early birthday gift, alright? This is your brother’s iPad, you gotta give that back to him!” Ashley answered through tearful eyes: “Promise Mommy? Okay, now I just want that pink ice cream over there.” The mother gave some money to one nanny and she hurried off. She gave the ice cream to Ashley, who immediately licked it. With a disgusted look, Ashley complained: “This is most awful!” And before the nanny knew what hit her, Ashley stuck the ice cream to her blouse and snickered. Her brother laughed while their mother suppressed a smile and said: “Ashley! Tina, go ahead and clean yourself up. Ashley, I’m never gonna buy you anything again!” Ashley looked at her mother and said: “That’s not true.” Then she walked away while the remaining nanny silently followed her. Parents cannot complain about the attitudes of their children if they are bad role models. If they cannot show their children how to value money properly, they will never value the things that are bought for them. Aside from learning the value of money, children need discipline and guidance to know how to treat others, especially to see others as human beings and not objects. Tina passed me by; I could smell the pink strawberries from her blouse. I remembered how much I liked strawberry ice cream with strawberry seeds that tickled my tongue, but this scene just ruined it for me. I saw her wiping her tears and felt sorry for her. If she is crying, she might be someone new to this household. If she is new, it means that nannies rarely stay long in this family. And something told me I know why. It saddens me that nannies have to go through so much emotional turmoil to handle spoiled children. Having nannies makes it easier for some parents to ditch their major responsibility – to discipline children and teach them morality. I know how hard it must be for households with both parents working full-time to take care of their children. These parents need nannies or day care centers, so that they can work and provide for their children. Nevertheless, when they come home, they should still be parents. They should show their children that they do not need every latest thing in the world. Things do not make people happy. But if children see how their parents work so hard to buy new things very often, if they grow up in a family where all people talk about are things, and if parents do not tell and show their children how to treat their nannies, then their family will have some very difficult issues someday. Treating human beings as ends and not as objects is critical in forming good attitudes and behaviors, as well as showing children that there is a large difference between giving them everything they want to spoil them, and saying no when it is the most appropriate choice to discipline a child. Parental guilt compels some parents to “buy” their children’s love, since they cannot be with or for them. To feel better, they buy whatever their children want. They think that they can replace their children’s need for love and attention with material possessions. Parents have a responsibility to show their children that excessive materialism will be bad for them. It will be bad for them because they will no longer value money. It will make them unhappy because things cannot fill up the parts of their hearts that need integrity and independence. In addition, parents should teach children that prejudice and bad tendencies are wrong. Nannies are not slaves to be abused and bullied. They are there to support parents, not to replace them. Parents must be the primary teachers of what is right and wrong. If they cannot show their children what right is and if they cannot say ‘no’ to their children, their children can easily become very dependent and abusive adults in the future. To provide a better picture of what is good and bad parenting, I saw a much better scene. As Ashley tore away like a prima donna, another child beside me asked her mother if he can have a certain blue car for Christmas. He showed it to her. The mother looked at the price tag first and said: “Darling, this costs $50. We can buy so much food for that. Choose something else that is not too expensive but will still make you happy.” The boy answered: “Okay mom, forget what I said. I’m just happy you will be here for Christmas with us. You always work so hard even in holidays.” The mother looked so touched and tearful. I was in slight tears already. Parenting means saying ‘no’, too. It molds children with good values, the children who know why not all things are sources of their happiness. Parents want to make their children happy, but to do that they have to be parents in the sense that they have to discipline them to be happy as human beings with a strong moral code. I do not expect children to be perfect adults who know what right is and what wrong is. Not all adults have that in them. But I know that as a parent I will show my children that life does not revolve around material things. It is about being happy with their abilities and appreciating the love and care from all people around them, including their parents and siblings, as well as their nannies. Read More